OK, have you heard this one before?"Good morning....Tutas Towne Realty. This is Broker Bryant how can I help you today?""Yes....hi Broker Bryant we are interested in selling our house.""Excellent! You have called the right man. I too am interested in selling your house. Tell me a little bit about your house and why you want to sell.""Well...we bought our house in May of last year. It's was a brand new 4 bedroom Maronda home and we paid $275,000. We want to move because there's too much traffic in Poinciana and we don't like it here.""OK....you know this is very bad time to try and sell a house. How much do you owe on it?""We owe $273,000 and know we won't get that much for it but we read that we can get a short sale.""Well a short sale is for folks that are having severe financial hard... 09/17/2007

Hi folks. This morning I had another one of my Sellers call, to let me know, he had just received foreclosure papers from his lender. That makes three of my 25 listings that are now in some stage of foreclosure. That sucks!!! I want, so bad, to help these folks and I'm doing everything I can to get their properties sold but it is so hard to sell right now in Poinciana Fl. In fact, for August, there were only 31 closings out of 1,750 listings. If you do the math that means 1.77% of Poinciana's inventory sold last month! Does it get any worse than that?I was fortunate that 3 of the 31 closings were mine but that still leaves 25, of my Sellers, that didn't get "lucky". For the last couple of months we have been reducing the list prices every 2 weeks to try and find the "sweet spot". Unfort... 09/10/2007

Hi folks. As you know if you have been reading my blog, my market, Poinciana Fl, is in dire straights. Values are declining rapidly and inventory is at an all time high with only 3% of the inventory closing each month. Closings are down 62% for the year and property values are down about 25%. It's ugly!Well, Friday I received multiple offers on one of my listings. Two weeks ago I received multiple offers on another one that has since gone pending. Not bad!Your probably wondering what I did that was so special to merit getting multiple offers in this difficult market. I guess I could tell you it's because I'm so good and my 24 step marketing plan is far above what anyone else does. Or, I could tell you it's because I'm the best and other REALTORS® are just dying to sell my listings and ... 08/25/2007

Hi folks. Yesterday was the day I did my monthly market update to send out to all of my Sellers. I put these updates on my other blog BrokerBryant.com and then send the link out to my customers. I've found this to be a very good way to utilize a blog. By writing articles and then linking to them it really makes our jobs easier and shows our customer/clients that we are on the ball. So if you are not using your blog as part of your communcations you need to start. It's a little harsh but my Sellers need to know these things. Here it is:******************************OK, it's time for Broker Bryant's July market report. Let's get right into the stats for Poinciana Fl including all of the 34758 and 34759 zip codes. As of today, there are 1,712 houses on the market. Of those, 616 are priced... 08/07/2007

OK, today I want to take a little trip down memory lane. As most of you know I have been selling real estate in Poinciana Fl since 1994. I have seen this community grow from 7,000 people to almost 70,000 today. Poinciana has been the 2nd fastest growing PUD (planned unit development) in the country for many years. The oldest houses in Poinciana were built in 1973. So it took 20 years to get up to 7,000 people and then in 13 years we added more than 60,000 with most of the growth coming in the last five years.I've come up with a little visual to show you how values in Poinciana have been affected over the last 17 years. I'm going to use a house that I have listed and sold 3 times since 1998 and had managed prior to that. This is a typical Poinciana house built in 1990 with 3 bedrooms, 2 ... 07/31/2007

Howdy my friends and future customers. Today I want to write a little bit about proper pricing and what happens to your property if you don't get the pricing right, right from the get go. I wrote a post last August about a listing appointment I went on, it was titled "Counting the chickens before they hatch". This particular listing appointment came from one of my expired listing letters and I knew before I went that it was going to be difficult to get it priced properly. It was overpriced by about $65,000. You can read my prior post if you want more details.Anyway, I thought I had the listing but after about a week of going back and forth on pricing and how much they were willing to pay me, I turned it down and they listed with another REALTOR®. This property was first placed on the ma... 07/21/2007

 Guess who is coming to Poinciana??? They make some of the best franchised coffee in the world.Most of their places of business have FREE WiFi access for those of you who like to mix lunch and business like I do!Not only do they have great coffee, but their pastries and sandwiches are pretty good too! GIVE UP??Opening in the $15 million dollar Poinciana Towne Center,Starbucks will joining N.Y.P.D. Pizza/Delicatessen, and State Farm Insurance -- to mention a few of the businesses that will round out the leased space.The Poinciana Centre plans to be open for business by Feb. 2008  Poinciana has come of AGE!!! Whoo woo!!!  thinkaboutit.....hehehehe....... central Florida real estate commercial enterprises are still growing! I told you things were not that bad in central Florida.....    Thi... 07/13/2007

OK folks, it's time for Broker Bryant's June market report for Poinciana FL. Now this month I decided to do things a little different. I am going to fill this report with my "optimistic spin"!! That's right I am going to be Mr. Optimistic. Lately, I've been finding myself slipping over to the "dark side" so, figure I best nip that in the bud. First I'm going to put the facts out there then we'll see what I can do to put the proper "spin" on it. So here goes.As most of you know, I run the MLS Hotsheet everyday. The Hotsheet gives me the market activity for the prior day i.e. sold listings, pending listings, expired listings, new listings etc. Well, since Friday was the last business day of the month, I decided to wait until today to look at the Hotsheet. I knew there would be quite a few... 07/02/2007

Hi folks. Today I want to talk a little bit about listing presentations. As you know I am an exclusive listing Broker and have been for 13 years. I've sold hundreds of homes in Poinciana Fl and consider myself an expert when it comes to pricing and getting Sellers to hire me to sell their properties. It's what I do and I take it very serious.Currently, my market is very difficult. Homes are just not selling and needless to say this makes my job more difficult. I cannot walk into a listing presentation being Mr. Optimistic. I guess I could but I won't. Giving Sellers "false hope" is the worst thing we as REALTORS® can do. Sellers, need to know, that selling their house is going to be very difficult even at the right price. If it's over priced...well forget about it. They will not get luc... 06/28/2007

Are Buyers, in your area, having a hard time pulling the trigger? Are they shooting blanks? They certainly are in Poinciana Fl. I guess they just have too many properties to choose from. There are currently about 1,750 homes on the market in Poinciana and only about 50 a month are selling. In fact, as of this morning, there are only 77 pending listings!!! That's pitiful.Needless to say, getting an offer, on one of my listings, is a rare occasion. Yesterday, I was fortunate to get a real good one. A decent purchase offer with the Buyer putting $100,000 down. Better yet, they weren't asking the Seller for anything. Now folks, in my market, we don't see these very often. Normally it's 100% financing with the Seller paying all the closing costs. I was excited!So, I called my Seller and drov... 06/27/2007

OK CaliGal, this is my meager attempt to put a smile on your face today. For those who don't know CaliGal, she is one of my Sellers and we have been working together to try and get HER HOUSE sold in Poinciana Fl. Unfortunately, we just keep getting one bad offer after another and yesterday's was no exception. I wrote about it here.Anyway, we do things a little differently at Tutas Towne Realty so...well....just click on the video below and it will explain things further.All content copyright © 2007 - Broker Bryant Real Estate Ramblings   06/21/2007

Yesterday, after seven months on the market, one of my listings finally sold. The sad part is it sold on the steps of the county court house as a foreclosure. I hate it when that happens. I feel like I failed in my attempts to help this Seller out. His property was a flip that flopped. It was purchased in early 2006, at $225,000, with a $5,000 down payment. This particular builder sold about 30 of these homes to folks down in south Florida. I had written about here (A dollar short and many days late) and here (help stamp out fraud). Unfortunately, by the time I took the listing, the property was only worth about $200,000 and we were going to need to negotiate a short sale in order to get it sold. Within six weeks of having it on the market we placed it under contract for $200,000. The b... 06/14/2007

OK folks, first, I promise there is NO singing in this video. Now, if you haven't read my previous post "I'm going to sell me a house" I"ll wait.....la la la la la...OK you back? Folks, I think this video below will sum up my weekend. I hope you enjoy it!!! And this is all I have to say about this matter. Maybe.  Now wasn't that fun?All content copyright © 2007 - Broker Bryant Real Estate Ramblings 06/11/2007

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from a Buyer who was in front of one my listings. I spoke to them briefly and made an appointment to show them the house today at 11:00. Well, later last night, I got a call from a Mortgage Broker who had the Buyers connected in on a conference call. He proceeded to tell my about his Buyers and how they had seen a house they were interested in but he wanted to know how much the house would appraise for.He went on to say how he was also a Real Estate Broker and he works with Lenders that do not have to have seasoned funds, so as long as the house appraised for high enough, his Buyers could do a no money down deal. Hmm.....Now this of course sounds a little fraudulent to me. So I ask him, "How they do that?"Well, according to this thief...Oops...I me... 05/24/2007

A while back I had written a post titled "Your home is your castle not an ATM Machine" and shortly after that I wrote "When the wall comes tumbling down". Both of these posts were written about the same Sellers. Very nice young couple who unfortunately made a few bad decisions and ended up owing more money than their home is worth. The details of their dilemma are outlined in the posts above. In a nutshell, they owe too much on the house. They listed with me at market value knowing we would need to get a short sale, they continued to get solicitations for refinancing even though they couldn't afford the current payments and had zero equity. After about 45 days on the market, they finally succumbed to the pressure and decided to go for one of the refinancing deals. I spoke to them about ... 05/17/2007

I'm curious, how are things going in your market area? I was doing a little research on my market, Poinciana Fl, this morning and discovered that sales are down 59% from same period last year (Jan 1-Apr 24). Last year, this period, there were 360 closings, this year 137. That's a pretty drastic change. There are also currently 1,734 active listings in my two zip codes. So, if you do the math, there is more than two years worth of inventory in Poinciana! Also, our 2 largest builders, Avatar (the developer) and Maronda Homes have just slashed their prices by approximately 15% over the last 30 days.So folks, it ain't a purdy picture. Now, fortunately for me, my numbers are about the same as they were last year. I've had 12 closings and I have 22 active listings. I'm still on tract to have ... 04/24/2007

Here is a great starter home, totally remodeled after Hurricane Charlie paid a visit....all new everything including roof, walls, floors, pool screen enclosure, 3rd bedroom added with AC and closet. New bathroom. This one is not a huge house but affordable and ready for some lucky buyer who can only afford $150k!!!!!!! Virtual Tour at http://RealEstateShows.com/140848MLS # S4620241...vacant...electronic lockbox....Show and Sell! 04/20/2007

Earlier today I got a call from Savvy Sam. Savvy Sam lives down in south Florida but owns a property in Poinciana that he purchased back in July of 2005 and has been trying to sell ever since. He bought this new construction home, sight unseen, with the good intention of selling it for a profit after it was completed. Why not? Everyone else was and heck he only needed to put down $11,000(5% of $220,000). Even though he had never heard of or seen Poinciana, the builder and affiliated Real Estate company assured him that $220,000 was a good deal and that he would be able to sell it as soon as construction was completed for $265,000.So, based on what they had told him, he figured he could easily turn his $11,000 "investment" into a cool $28,000 profit! Savvy Sam had just immigrated to Flor... 04/17/2007

Hi folks. I received an offer on one of my listings today. I was pretty excited when I heard it was coming over but of course as soon as I saw it, my excitement faded. Now folks, I know things are slow and I know it's a Buyer's market. My Sellers know this too. In fact my strategy, during this more difficult market, is to price my listings below recent sales. I always want my listings to be in the top five, arranged by lowest price, for similar properties. This particular property is Range Priced from $179,000 to $199,000 with a target price of $185,000 to $189,000. Recent sales (last 45 days), of which there are five of them, have been from a low of $189,000 to a high of $204,000, with the average being $195,000. So you can see we are priced very well. This house is actually a superior... 03/29/2007

Hey, has any one heard about the subprime lending crisis? OK, I guess you probably have. From what I understand, this crisis, we are going through right now, is due to all the lowlife, lying and cheating Mortgage Brokers that had saturated our business over the last few years looking to pad their wallets with the blood sweat and tears of the working class. They have been working in conjunction with money grubbing REALTORS® who have driven property values to all time highs by coercing the consumer into purchasing above their means. And "The Man" has sat idly by sucking the average Joe dry in increased property taxes while raising insurance rates to subsidizing the super wealthy who want to live on the San Andreas fault and opening the flood gates of evil money to anyone that could breath... 03/15/2007